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Wave of protest over Zaha Hadid's Baku prizewinner

Heydar Aliyev centre described by judges as the 'pinnacle moment' in Hadid's portfolio despite reports of forced evictions

Zaha Hadid's Heydar Aliyev centre has won the overall Design of the Year from London's Design Museum, but there are concerns about the site's human rights record. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

A colossal cultural centre in Azerbaijan by the architect Zaha Hadid has been declared the Design of the Year by London's Design Museum, despite concerns about the site's human rights record.

Housing a museum, auditorium and multi-purpose hall within its undulating shell in the capital, Baku, the Heydar Aliyev centre was described by the judges as "the pinnacle moment" in Hadid's portfolio, a piece of architecture that "should make us talk for years to come". It beat off competition from an innovative school chair, a revolutionary eye examination app, and a futuristic piano keyboard.

The Heydar Aliyev centre, designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher, has won the overall Design of the Year from London's Design Museum. Photograph: Guardian

Like sinuous whirls of whipped cream, buffeted into a mountain range of peaks and spilling out to form a zig-zagging landscape, it is the most complete realisation yet of the Iraqi-born architect's vision of swooping curves and flowing space, which she brought to London's Olympic swimming pool.

"It is an intoxicatingly beautiful building by the most brilliant architect at the height of her office's powers," said juror Piers Gough, of CZWG Architects, the only member of the six-strong panel to have seen the project in the flesh. "It is as pure and sexy as Marilyn's blown skirt."

But Human Rights Watch said that, along with the Crystal Hall, stage of the 2012 Eurovision song contest, and the park-cum-shopping mall of the Winter Garden, the centre is one of the city's many oil-fuelled grand projects that have seen local people evicted by force.

"The government has pursued a programme of illegal expropriation and forced eviction across the city, without proper compensation of its residents," said Giorgi Giorgia of HRW, which produced a damning report on the consequences of Baku's urban development in 2012.

"The government squeezed people out by cutting off their supply of electricity, gas and water. Sometimes residents would be detained and when they came back, their homes were simply gone. Other buildings were demolished with people still in them." In the runup to the 2013 elections, he added, the authorities arrested dozens of political activists on bogus charges, imprisoned critical journalists, broke up peaceful demonstrations and enacted emergency legislation that further restricted freedoms.

While almost 250 homes were cleared to make way for Hadid's building, (questions have also been raised about the rights of those who built it. In 2010, while the project was under construction, the global construction workers' union, BWI, exposed one of the largest cases of human trafficking in Europe, of migrant labourers from Bosnia and Serbia forced to work in Baku in appalling conditions, subjected to physical and psychological violence, with their passports confiscated.

Reading this on mobile? Click here to view videoIt follows the Guardian's revelations of horrific migrant labour conditions in Qatar, where Hadid's World Cup stadium is under construction, and where 500 workers have died in the last two years. "I have nothing to do with the workers," said Hadid, when challenged about these figures. "I think that's an issue the government – if there's a problem – should pick up. … It's not my duty as an architect to look at it."

Hadid's practice said the contractor on the Baku project was internationally accredited by the Geneva-based inspection and verification body SGS.

"Even if these sites are already clear, there are likely to be ongoing claims," says Hugh Williamson of Human Rights Watch. "All international companies have a responsibility for the local issues of consultation, compensation and the use of force – it is something they must be aware of."